This Kobe Bryant injury devastating to Lakers

Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, right, looks to pass around Indiana Pacers forward Paul George in the first half of an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Friday, March 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Their holiday wish was nearly granted, with Bryant finally settling into a basketball rhythm, six games back after his return from a ruptured Achilles tendon.

Then Santa delivered a shocker Thursday, six days before Christmas: Bryant has a fractured left knee and will be out at least six weeks.

Tickets for the Christmas showdown with LeBron James and the Miami Heat at Staples Center are now akin to a lump of coal in your stocking.

The Lakers can barely keep enough healthy bodies to run point guard, let alone keep their season alive.

Just a few hours after the news broke, Bryant Tweeted: “BrokenNotBeaten.”

Surely, he hasn’t had enough time to digest how devastating this is for the Lakers.

The Lakers have been beaten down with injuries, so much so that vision of playoffs dancing in their heads are more like hallucinations.

Steve Nash, Steve Blake and Jordan Farmar are all still out along with the newly-injured Bryant. Xavier Henry is the newest starting point guard for the Lakers, and most fans still don’t even know how to pronounce his name correctly.

If the season ended today, the Lakers would miss the playoffs anyway. Now that the 35-year-old Bryant won’t return until late January or early February at the earliest, the chances for playoffs are much more slim.

Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said that championships are the theme when he took this job for the fired Mike Brown. This, of course, despite D’Antoni having never won an NBA title.

The gloomy Thursday was the perfect backdrop at the Toyota Sports Center now that the Lakers are doomed.

If all goes well for Bryant, he won’t return until just before the All-Star break — Feb. 14-16 — and the Lakers could be out of the playoff picture by the time he’s back. The Lakers did so well in keeping the team around .500 until his return.

How much more can a team endure? They weren’t a lock for the playoffs when everyone was healthy.

“I wasn’t expecting this coming to practice (Thursday),” guard Nick Young said while shaking his head. “None of us were … It’s shocking. It’s like a roller coaster. We played a certain way without him. Then he came back and we played a certain way and got in a groove and played comfortable. We have to play for him and for each other.”

There’s no way for the Lakers to spin this into something positive. They tried after practice, which is what they should do.

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Young had his usual smile going for the cameras, but he surely wanted to grit his teeth.

“It’s rough,” Young said. “We rely on Kobe. We were getting comfortable with him. Things started to click. We were seeing what we wanted. Now, no point guards. No Kobe. No Jordan. No Blake. It’s something new every day.”

The stunning injury, so soon after he returned from a long rehabilitation, confirms Bryant is getting much older, and his best days seem further and further behind him.

“I was hoping this season he’d be healthier than he was last year,” Lakers center Pau Gasol said. “But it’s been one after another. It’s not going to be an excuse for us to not go out there and do our best and to continue to compete and try to get wins.”

It’s difficult to know if one injury had anything to do with the other. Perhaps it was overcompensation. Maybe he came back too soon. D’Antoni had other ideas.

“That’s just bad luck,” D’Antoni said of the injury.

The Lakers tried to put on a good face, and after practice, the Lakers were next door to the ice skating rink for a Christmas party for children. Pau Gasol even donned a Santa hat and took pictures with children. It surely was a nice reprieve from a bummer day. And it must’ve been better than sitting around thinking about the future of this Laker season.

Bryant was the only one who didn’t attend the party, but then again, he was at a doctor’s office where there was little Christmas cheer.

Once again, he can do nothing to help the Lakers try to make the playoffs. The Lakers are fourth in the Pacific Division at 12-13 and 3 1/2 games out of playoff spot

Bryant injured his knee in a collision with Memphis’ Tony Allen on Tuesday, and the video that’s gone viral has everyone wondering what in the world happened that caused a fracture in his knee.

It doesn’t seem anything significant happened before Bryant fell to the court and clutched his knee.

We’re so used to watching Bryant play through seemingly anything with that Mamba look on his face, draining last-second shots and drawing fouls and being aggressive.

The reality is that over the last year, he’s been on the bench or in the training room way more than he’s been on a basketball court.

While his teammates were practicing Thursday, Bryant was getting an MRI. A reporter asked why Bryant wouldn’t just shut it down for the season. Anyone who knows Bryant’s competitive nature, knows that won’t happen.

“He’s too much of a competitor to do that,” D’Antoni said. “If he decides to do that, there will be a discussion. I think he’ll be back in six weeks, and he’ll be hunting for some bear.”

And the Lakers will be way far out, hunting for an elusive playoff spot.